Hispanic representation in government rises -- barely

The percentage of Hispanics in federal jobs continues to rise slowly, but the number hired took a step backward last year, according to figures released Thursday.

As of June 2006, Hispanics made up 7.5 percent of 1.7 million federal workers, up just slightly from 7.4 percent at the same time the previous year, a report from the Office of Personnel Management stated. The percentage has increased steadily since 1996, when Hispanics made up 6 percent of the federal workforce.

But while their representation has grown by 1.5 percentage points over the past decade, even the latest figure remains far short of the roughly 12.6 percent of Hispanics in the general civilian labor force.

And the percentage of new federal hires who were Hispanic dropped, from 8.2 percent as of the June 2005 statistics to 7.7 percent in the latest figures. The statistics indicate that Hispanics were "hired into the lowest-paying jobs," said Gilbert Sandate, chairman of the Coalition for Fairness for Hispanics in Government.

Just 4.2 percent of new senior executive level hires were Hispanic, compared to 7.1 percent of hires for blue-collar jobs, 8.6 percent of hires at the GS-1 to GS-4 levels and 10.2 percent of new GS-5 to GS-8 employees.

Hispanics' overall representation by pay level also decreased at the higher grades.

The low representation and low hiring rates for senior jobs are very serious problems, said Jorge Ponce, co-chairman of the Council of Federal EEO and Civil Rights Executives.

"It is at the senior pay [level] … where decisions are made and budgets are approved," Ponce said. "So if you really want to have a positive impact … I think the senior pay rank is where the first steps should be taken. Then you'll have a trickle-down effect."

OPM's report should serve as a "call to action by the Bush administration and the Congress to fix, once and for all, the broken federal personnel hiring system," Sandate said. "At their current rate of hire, Hispanics will never reach parity with their numbers in the national civilian labor force."

But figures varied widely across government, with some agencies far exceeding the national statistics. The Homeland Security Department employed the highest percentage of Hispanics, at 18.6 percent in June 2006, and brought them in as new hires at the second-highest rate. The Social Security Administration had the highest percentage of new hires who were Hispanic, at 15.7 percent, and employed the third-highest percentage of them overall, at 12.7 percent.

The Justice and Treasury departments placed among the top five in both areas. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was second for percentage of Hispanics employed, and NASA was third for hiring.

OPM's report noted that agencies with good track records on employing and recruiting Hispanics use tactics such as community outreach. DHS, for instance, shared information about employment opportunities with regional Hispanic newspapers and Spanish language media outlets such as Telemundo and Univision.

Officials at some agencies within DHS also circulated job vacancy announcements to Hispanic organizations on a regular basis, and the department established policies to rate senior executives and managers in part based on their commitment to building a diverse workforce.

In a letter to President Bush accompanying the report, OPM Director Linda Springer reiterated a commitment to establishing "a federal workforce that draws from America's diverse population" and to developing "innovative means of reaching out to diverse communities, including the Hispanic community."

Sandate suggested that the government could do more to recruit Hispanics through flexible hiring such as the Student Career Experience Program, which allows agencies to noncompetitively hire interns to permanent jobs after they complete school and meet a requirement for hours of federal work experience, and the Bilingual/Bicultural program, which encourages the hiring of applicants with Spanish language skills or Hispanic culture knowledge.

According to the latest OPM statistics, 7.6 percent of hires through the SCEP were Hispanic. A total of 16 Hispanics were hired through the Bilingual/Bicultural program from July 2005 to June 2006.

The report did not include figures on hiring of Hispanics through the Outstanding Scholar Program, another avenue through which Hispanics could be recruited, Ponce said.